Students and startups to apply to “Telekom Innovation Contest”

This week was opened the applications session for the second edition of the international contest “Telekom Innovation Contest”, dedicated mainly to students and entrepreneurs with startups, with consistent prizes and the opportunity to develop fresh innovative ideas.

The competition is organized by Deutsche Telekom Group, supported by hub:raum, the Group’s incubator program, and is coordinated at national level by Romtelecom and COSMOTE.

Creative teams of students, entrepreneurs with startup ideas, young IT startups from Romania have until April 11thto apply at www.telekom-innovation-contest.com. Teams of two or more people can submit their ideas in several categories: “Cloud-Based Productivity”, “Future Media & Communication”, “Internet of Things”, “Cyber Security”, “Reality Data” and “Smart Energy”. For the Romanian students interested in participating to the international contest, will be organized in the following period a series of lectures held by experts of Deutsche Telekom, to support them to successfully applying to the contest.

The rewards include investments of up to EUR 150,000, inclusion in international startup programs, service packages like Amazon servers, and interactions with highly visible experts within the international group.

After April 11, 2014, when the application period expires, the ideas will be assessed by experts within Deutsche Telekom.

The Romanian teams with the best ideas will be invited to national preliminary contest taking place in May in Bucharest. For the candidates in the rest of the countries will be organized similar events in Athens, Bratislava, Budapest, Podgorica, Prague, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Zagreb and Berlin.

The winning Romanian team will be evaluated along with the winning teams for other 9 countries.

It will be invited to “Champions Pitch” event at the end of June in Krakow, Poland, event which includes a four-day startup training program. On top, the winning team will take the stage at the “Long Night of Startups” on September 6 in Berlin, at which up to 6,000 guests are expected.

The 2013 Telekom Innovation Contest

In 2013, over 700 teams from 45 countries submitted 444 ideas. Out of 12 finalists from eight countries, Excalibur from Slovakia was the winner with an authentication solution for mobile devices. Cubilog from Hungary and Germany’s Codeatelier startup took second and third place, respectively, with their “Homee” solution.

About Romtelecom

With an expertise of over 80 years on the Romanian telecom market, Romtelecom offers today a complex range of communication and entertainment services covering all the needs of a household, with personalized packages including television, internet and voice. At the end of 2013, Romtelecom had over 4.85 million RGUs for TV, broadband internet and voice, as well as complex business ICT solutions. More information about the company is available on www.romtelecom.ro.

About COSMOTE Romania

COSMOTE Romania had 6.1 million customers at December 31st, 2013. Launched in 2005, COSMOTE Romania achieved the fastest network development in Europe, according to the Citigroup report in June 2007. In less than 5 years, COSMOTE Romania surpassed its competitors in terms of national network coverage. Today, COSMOTE Romania offers seamless communication to more than 99% of the population and 90% of the territory. COSMOTE Romania is a subsidiary of COSMOTE Group, the operator with the strongest presence in SE Europe with approximately 15.6 million customers. For more information, visit www.cosmote.ro.